Thread by @the818

I've been so fortunate this year to get to know so many of the incredible women known as silence breakers, and I want to talk to my journalist friends as the year anniversary approaches. (A thread.)

When I wrote my piece for @BuzzFeed about my experience as a Weinstein intern and my early awareness of the casting couch, I never expected that I would gain such support and friendship from women who have suffered so much and remain so strong. You guys, they're incredible.

And all of these incredible women (and men!) have been working hard this year. A year of hardship and more trauma and tragedy, but a year where headway has been made, no matter how obscured by the continued fight. But this is what I want you to know:

With the year anniversary of @jodikantor and @mega2e NYT investigative report days away, I want you to stop asking survivors to re-live their traumas; horrors that can be read in gory detail with a quick google. Instead, asking them about the advocacy work they've done this year.

Ask them about #metoo , silence breaking, fundraising, securing a seat on the Weinstein board to ensure victims are adequately compensated, making art, re-building careers, going to film festivals for the first time without the specter of Weinstein hanging over them.

In a time when women are stepping out from the shadows of the long-inequitable power dynamic, let's not define them by their abusers, but rather by the tough and personally costly ways they've leaned-in to change for all. #silencebreakers